Piper Pawnee 235 (33% - Hanger 9)

[MarnochS]

I couldn't help myself,....I had to put some new wheels on the Pawnee for the AeroTow segment of the National Model Aviation Day Airshow the Tulare Condors RC Club put on.
Well,... I found out that the stock H9 wheels have hubcaps that hide the allen head bolts I was thinking I could paint them a better color than just the stock gray. I was looking around for some quick inspiration and as luck would have it, I spotted my small P40c Tomahawk sitting on the shelf.....Perfect and the right color too. First attempt was simple straight lines . It did look cool when the wheels were rolling

[JimD]

You always think of cool stuff to make your planes unique! 😎

[ARUP]

It's all in the details! lol I like it!

[MarnochS]

Uh-oh..........found a cool Propeller for a DA120


Had it in my hands on it for all of 15 minutes before shipping it off to Tru-Turn to get a custom cut P-51 spinner.......apparently I'm working my way back from the nose...

[MarnochS]

Conversion to PolyFiber-lite cover begins.......covering was easily coaxed around the curves while gluing down with the polytac.....




Tru-Turn Spinner and Mustang Propeller test fit......

[yyz]

Nice Scott! That covering is going to look really cool. Kind of amazed how tight the joints are on that rudder...

[MarnochS]

Thanks Mike, having fun doing it. and looking forward to the covering not wrinkling.....

Little be more progress, got the fabric attached and did some shrinking - 250, 275, and stopped at 300. used a regular Ironing Iron for that stage for even heat application. Next step was Polybrush to seal the fabric and then pinking tapes.

[yyz]

Next step was Polybrush to seal the fabric and then pinking tapes.

Nice touch.

[MarnochS]

Moving on to the Stab/elevators.......

Ordered some 3mm triangle Pinking Shear for better matching of the angled tapes.

Even on the production line an occasional miss drill happens as you can see from the left elevator. Used the Soldering iron technique to remove the pin hinges from, tried the drill technique on one and had the drill "wander" a bit too much. Found a picture of a full size elevator for comparison.... not much there.....



Standard Iron used for the 250, 275, 300 fabric shrinking



On the elevator Trailing edge I used the solvent technique to attach the fabric I picked up from a 1/3 Cherokee II build thread, well more specifically from Dean Gradwell's Full size Cherokee II Fabric application technique. - two coats of PolyTac applied , let dry... then pull fabric in place, then apply some MEK to soften the PolyTac. Works nicely.



Iron at 225 to smooth out the bumps

[yyz]

Scott, do you end up doping this covering to final shrink and seal it? Sure brings back some memories...

[MarnochS]

Hi Mike,
The Poly-Fiber system is a Vinyl coating over their Polyester fabric. No nitrate or butyrate dope is involved. You shrink the fabric with a calibrated Iron ( no heat guns ). Then the Poly-brush seals the fabric......Poly-Spray is the second coating and acts as a UV barrier and sandable fill coat. Third layer is the "Paint / Color" layer - either Poly-Tone or AeroThane. Poly-Tone is a semi-gloss finish and easy to repair.
The Pawnee is going to be a combo of Poly-Tone over the covered surfaces and AeroThane on the Fiberglass/metal stuff

[Steve P]

Very nice, Scott. I love when folks take an ARF to a higher level through details, quality and care like this. Thanks for sharing.

[MarnochS]

Thanks Steve

While I wait for the 3mm triangle pinking shears to arrive from Shanghai, China via ePacket........on to the wings

Converting over to the "round" tip necessitated removal of the fiberglass tips........a quick look inside to see what I was cutting off.......Dremel tool and Zonal saw




Traced the Airfoil onto some Particle board and started playing with the shape, from the 3-view drawings and full-size photos its not just a half-circle shape, biased a little forward.
Found a uncovered full sized Pawnee ( I hope ) wing tip picture for reference....... shape is going to be a little off as I don't want to cut the wingtip all the way back to the aileron bay.....well at least not yet....
Using 1/16 strips of Poplar laminated together.



Initial attempt with epoxy.......6 strips laminated together

[stevekremer]

Very nice Scott

Steve K

[MarnochS]

45 degree bias cut tapes for around the tail surfaces compound curves - 3mm triangle pinking shears.



a little pulling and poly-brush and .....